The Governor’s race in Florida isn’t over yet! As the state heads closer to a recount, Democrat gubernatorial candidate and FAMU Alumnus Andrew Gillum has withdrawn his concession. Gillum conceded on Tuesday night at a Election Night rally at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University after projections pointed to his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis having enough votes to claim victory. However, votes in several other counties in the state hadn’t been counted and the margin of votes between Gillum and DeSantis drew closer and closer. It currently stands at 0.41 percent with DeSantis leading by just 33,000 votes.
The statewide machine recount was issued by Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner and also includes the U.S. Senate race, governor’s race, and commissioner of agriculture race. The results of the recount are due by Thursday, November 15th at 3 PM. Gillum and his campaign prepared for the recount, urging citizens of Florida to urge state legislators for a recount and hired Barry Richard, the lawyer that represented former President George W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election vs. democratic nominee Al Gore. He also went to Twitter to publicly announce that he was pulling his concessions.
I am replacing my earlier concession with an unapologetic and uncompromised call to count every vote.
-- ADVERTISEMENT -- — Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) November 10, 2018
Desantis reaction has been vastly different from Gillum’s. He’s said little about the recount and has poised himself to take the gubernatorial position. DeSantis has already created a transition team and is readying himself for January as if he’s already won the election. Things are starting to become interesting in the battle for political power in a Trump America. The gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia will be interesting regardless of the outcome, as they may signal a change in our political process. Only time will tell.
Sources
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/florida-key-races-undergo-automatically-triggered-machine-recount-n934821
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/gillum-statement-stokes-intrigue-florida-vote-margin-tightens-n934081
- https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/10/politics/andrew-gillum-withdraw-concession-florida-governor/index.html
